There are many things that are considered when it comes to designing and creating bulletproof glass for armored vehicles. Also popularly referred to as bulletproof glass, its main duty is to stop bullets. Let’s learn the procedures of creating this kind of a glass and the ways it helps to protect the driver and his passengers from injury.
Materials used in making a bullet proof glass
The constituents of bulletproof glass include several layers of fiberglass, polyurethane, polycarbonate, acrylic and a number of other resins. When these materials are used together, they have the ability to stop a bullet. However, it should be noted that they are not fully bulletproof. When enough pressure is applied on any object, it will eventually break. Glass that can be able to withstand an AK-47 rifle fire or weather a shotgun blast eventually will succumb to attackers with enough ammunition.
To improve the glass’s bullet stopping power, several materials must be used together. These are then organized into several layers so as to create the highest level of resistance. All used materials are seamed together through what is generally referred to as the autoclave process. Bulletproof glass used on armored Lexus vehicles is normally created by combining more than one type of glasses, one soft and the other hard. The main purpose of hard glass is to disperse energy from the bullet through the entire glass while at the same time flattening the bullet’s tip. The softer of the two layers of glass makes the entire finished product to be more elastic in order for it to flex rather than shatter.
The whole process of creating the layers is repeated so as to increase and improve its protection level. The layering is alternated between soft and hard glasses. However, it should be noted that both kinds of glasses need to have the same refraction so as to make the final product undistorted and transparent.
So how thick is a bullet proof glass?
The thickness of a bulletproof glass depends on the applied number of layers. However, when compared to the standard glass, bullet proof glass is quite thick. Bulletproof glass that is installed on armored vehicles is ranked according to its thickness. As such, 21mm thick is normally ranked B4. This kind has the capacity to stop bullets from shot guns. 70mm glass is ranked B7 and has the power to stop bullets form high-powered rifles. This ranking is normally based on certified testing, several layers and thickness.
Weight of armored glass
Since bulletproof glass is extremely thick, it weights is dramatically increased. The standard glass used as windshield on a majority of vehicles weigh approximately 25 pounds. However, rank B4 bulletproof windshields weigh between 100 to 300 pounds based on things such as its design. A rank B7 bulletproof windshield weighs around 600 pounds. Since bullet proof armored vehicle glass weighs more than the standard glass, its functionality is really limited. Specialty motors therefore must be installed into the driver’s door to offer the capacity to move the window up and down. However, drivers are advised to take care when rolling up and down the window especially in dangerous circumstances as this could end up defeating its main purpose, which is to have the bulletproof glass in the first place.
All in all, bulletproof glass is a critical component of a passenger armored vehicle. As such, it must be made of transparent, optically advanced and highly resistant materials which when used together have the capacity to stop most of the available bullets in the world. A number of layers of flexible glass and other transparent materials need to be used together so as to offer the best possible protection and optics. All in all, the main purpose of having a bulletproof glass on a vehicle is to offer effective protection from a wide range of deadly weapons.